Substitute

Substitute picks up more minor changes in new v2.0.5 update

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 14, 2021

If you use the unc0ver jailbreak, then you might recall a Substitute update that was released just yesterday evening, bringing the tweak injection package up to version 2.0.4. It was just one of several updates to be released since Substitute received its major v2.0 rebranding shortly after the start of the new year, but it would be far from the last…

This Thursday evening, Substitute received yet another update. The package now sports the version number 2.0.5, however for the average jailbreaker, this update isn’t quite as imperative as yesterday’s would have been.

Substitute updated to version 2.0.4 with performance and stability fixes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 13, 2021

If you’ve been paying attention to the unc0ver team as of late, then you likely caught wind of the team’s plans in November to release Substitute version 2.0 with significant speed and performance improvements. Substitute is the primary tweak injection method used by the unc0ver jailbreak, which means that it loads user-installed jailbreak tweaks and extensions.

The unc0ver team’s plans were realized just last week after Sam Bingner unleashed the update on his personal repository, which comes pre-added to Cydia out of the box on the unc0ver jailbreak. While the update was somewhat shaky for a small subset of users at first, a couple of smaller subsequent Substitute updates quickly addressed that.

Substitute v2.0 officially released, v2.0.1 also now available

Anthony Bouchard ∙ January 8, 2021

At the end of November, hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd shared a Tweet indicating that Substitute — the primary tweak injection method for this particular jailbreak — would soon be updated to version 2.0 with a trove of improvements.

Without any sort of ETA provided at the time, no one could have guessed when Substitute v2.0 would launch. With that in mind, many unc0ver users were taken by surprise late last night when the update officially became available by way of Sam Bingner’s repository.

Team unc0ver announces plan to launch Substitute v2.0 with speed & performance gains

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 29, 2020

The unc0ver Team has been extraordinarily silent despite FreeTheSandbox and ZecOps releasing a new tfp0 exploit with support for iOS & iPadOS versions 13.5.1-13.7recently , but that silence was broken this Sunday evening following a rather intriguing announcement.

The announcement, shared in a Tweet by the unc0ver Team and retweeted by unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd reveals exactly what the team has been working on all this time — a reworked version of Substitute:

Chimera v1.4.0 update introduces stability gains via limited libhooker support

Anthony Bouchard ∙ March 14, 2020

Electra Team lead developer CoolStar took to Twitter late last night to announce that the Chimera jailbreak tool for iOS 12.0-12.4 had been updated to version 1.4.0.

It’s the first update to be released for the aging Chimera jailbreak since last September, and despite multiple teasers for Chimera13, an alleged iOS 13-supported version of the Electra Team’s jailbreak tool, CoolStar recently pulled the plug on plans to launch it.

Unc0ver jailbreak updated to v3.7.0 beta 4 with minor changes

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 27, 2020

Despite all the hype surrounding the checkra1n jailbreak in recent memory, hacker and unc0ver lead developer Pwn20wnd is reminding everyone that he’s still around with a new public beta release of his renowned iOS 11 and 12-centric jailbreak tool Monday evening.

Pwn20wnd didn’t share any status updates on Twitter about the new unc0ver public beta v3.7.0 beta 4, and perhaps unsurprisingly, that’s because this appears to be a relatively minor update dealing with Cydia and tweak injection methods.

CoolStar says Chimera and Electra jailbreaks will soon ditch Substitute for libsubstrate

Anthony Bouchard ∙ November 2, 2019

The Electra Team’s Chimera and Electra jailbreak tools have long utilized Substitute for native tweak injection, but it now seems that this could be on the verge of changing.

Electra Team lead developer CoolStar took to his jailbreak-oriented Discord channel on Thursday to share that his team would no longer maintain Substitute due to its incompatibility with certain jailbreak tweaks and hooking limitations:

Unc0ver jailbreak picks up support for A12(X) devices running iOS 12.0-12.4

Anthony Bouchard ∙ Updated May 27, 2020

After a much-anticipated wait, hacker Pwn20wnd has incorporated full-fledged A12(X) device support into the unc0ver jailbreak tool and released it for public testing in the form of unc0ver v3.7.0 beta 1.

The new beta was made available for public testing Sunday afternoon following a series of suspenseful Tweets shared by Pwn20wnd himself along with some of his internal beta testers:

Unc0ver with A12(X) support moves on to internal testing as public release looms

Anthony Bouchard ∙ September 20, 2019

It was only a few days ago that Pwn20wnd teased that significant progress had been made on adding full A12(X) device support to the unc0ver jailbreak tool, and as it would seem, we’re now closer than ever to a public release.

Pwn20wnd took to Twitter this afternoon to share that unc0ver with A12(X) device support had entered the internal testing phases, and assuming everything goes smoothly with this phase of testing, the first official public release could follow shortly after:

Pwn20wnd says he’s almost done implementing Substitute support into unc0ver

Anthony Bouchard ∙ July 30, 2019

If you have an iOS 12 device and you’re looking to jailbreak it, then you have two potential options at your disposal: Chimera by the Electra Team and unc0ver by Pwn20wnd. Both can jailbreak iOS 12.0-12.3 beta, but the latter is particularly limited on A12(X) devices because Cydia Substrate has not (and will not) be updated to work on them.

The Electra Team’s Chimera jailbreak works painlessly on A12(X) handsets because it uses an implementation of Substitute instead of Cydia Substrate. This was perhaps one of the single most compelling reasons to use Chimera at the time, but as you might recall, Pwn20wnd was working to implement Substitute into the unc0ver jailbreak, at least for A12(X) devices.

Should I jailbreak with Chimera, Electra, or unc0ver?

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 2, 2019

In case you’ve been living under a rock, there are now three major full-fledged jailbreak tools floating around in the wild: Chimera, Electra, and unc0ver. So which one should you be using?

Answering this question is challenging, and given the seemingly volatile state of the jailbreak community at the time of this writing, I’ve been hesitant to answer it; but I think it’s finally time, especially since folks now have more choices to pick from than ever before.

Disable Cydia Substrate or Substitute in specific apps with UnSub

Anthony Bouchard ∙ May 1, 2019

Some App Store apps throw a fit when you jailbreak your device or when they’re tampered with by third-party tweaks, so if you happen to be jailbroken, what can you do to resolve this problem and mitigate issues with these types of apps? We're glad you asked.

UnSub is a new free jailbreak tweak by iOS developer Nepeta that aims to make your pwned handset less prone to these kinds of issues. It does this by letting you disable Cydia Substrate or Substitute-centric tweak injection for specific apps, such as those that might exhibit adverse reactions.